Asset-light manufacturing is enjoying a boom as enterprises replace rigid production lines with digitally synchronized suppliers and carriers. Agile brands can use modern product lifecycle management, manufacturing operations management, supply networks, and contract manufacturing to orchestrate the best mix of onshore, nearshore, and offshore facilities in order to capitalize on short-product-lifecycle opportunities in hot industry verticals like medical devices and consumer electronics. Tech leaders at manufacturers that want to seize these opportunities should read this research to understand which capabilities they must own and which they can orchestrate to best serve their customers.

AI agents and consumption-based pricing are the future, but the H2 2025 earnings reveal a gap between vendor promise and reality. Across the top 10 enterprise vendors, triple-digit growth is sometimes due to clever bundling, while lighthouse pilots and few production capabilities dominate the landscape. This important shift to usage-based pricing is moving financial volatility directly from vendor P&L to your budget. This report cuts through the noise to separate real execution from strategic storytelling. Forrester translates these complex financials into a tactical playbook, helping you turn narrative inflation into procurement leverage.

Global trade continues to be exposed to significant pressures and structural change. Geopolitical tensions, supply chain disruptions, and shifting investment flows are forcing corporate leaders to rethink their sourcing and manufacturing ecosystems. Meanwhile, modern trade agreements have become essential tools for stabilizing commerce and rewriting the rules for the movement of goods, capital, labor, and […]

Despite geopolitical disruption, customers still expect prompt, affordable, and locally available materials and components (in the case of B2B value chains) or consumer goods (in B2C supply chains). Despite the proliferation of new technologies, experienced supply chain execs deplore the lack of supply chain transparency — and time is running out as firms forge ahead with AI-powered supply chain processes. To understand the opportunity for closing the gap and develop a coherent plan, technology architecture and delivery (TAD) professionals must benchmark their supply chain effectiveness and agility against their peers.

Modern digital supply chain capabilities offer a route to competitive differentiation for almost all companies, whether they serve impatient customers in B2C markets or help their customers compress order-to-cash cycle times in B2B markets. Digital business leaders should use the Forrester Supply Chain Evaluation Tool to identify the gap between their supply chain capabilities and those of their peers. This analysis will help them build the business case for supply chain improvement.

Faced with tariff turmoil, sustainability mandates, and geopolitical realignment, technology leaders must review their supply chain technology portfolios. This report provides an overview of the key steps that technology architecture and delivery (TAD) executives must take to transform their supply chain technology portfolios to boost resilience and sustainability and profitably deliver the compelling product choice and availability that wins, serves, and retains customers.

Edge computing and IoT are evolving rapidly, creating both opportunities and complexity for technology leaders. Confusion persists around edge fundamentals, and success depends on aligning IoT use cases with business priorities and fostering collaboration between IT and operational technology (OT) teams. Emerging trends such as AI at the edge, enhanced observability, advanced security models, sustainability solutions, and edge development platforms will reshape strategies in 2025. This report explains the core concepts, outlines critical collaboration practices, and highlights the top 10 trends to help enterprises build resilient, future-ready edge and IoT initiatives.

As technology executives juggle investments in applications in order to adapt to changing business requirements, they must understand multiple categories of technologies and services. This report helps technology executives get up to speed on product lifecycle management, focus discussions on the latest innovations, and understand the key decisions that land on their desk.

While sourcing is often equated to the entire supply chain, it’s just one of several interconnected supply chain processes that need to operate in harmony to be effective, efficient, and resilient. This report dispels the common misconception that sourcing and supply chain are synonymous and offers strategic guidance on how to empower procurement to leverage high-performance IT (HPIT) for supply chain resilience.

Thanks to concerns about tariffs and geopolitics, Forrester clients are expressing a keen interest in the impact of technology on fulfillment. You might have seen that we wrote about the rediscovery of route optimization and the emergence of transportation grids in earlier research. But now our clients ask: 1) Are parcel freight and less-than-truckload (LTL) […]